Coffin Joe's Fingernails
“How long would these nails grow if I did not cut them? Until they crippled my hands?” --Coffin Joe (This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse) Coffin Joe’s signature characteristic are his long untrimmed nails, which he sometimes uses to gouge out his enemies eyes. The nails are an extension of Coffin Joe's ideology that there is no "supreme force" and that even nature (as illustrated in the above quote) is inferior to the mind of man.http://cinema-naweb.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html Cinema Na Web Blogspot (reproduced from Notícia da Manhã, periodical of Catanduva, edition 08/08/2008. Background As a young boy, Marins had the habit of keeping his thumb nails long as a hobby.http://www.tvcultura.com.br/rodaviva/programa/pgm0614 Roda Viva - Entrevista - José Mojica Marins (Zé do Caixão) In 1964, when he took the role of Coffin Joe in At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, his makeup man noticed this and convinced him to add fake nails to the other fingers to complete the character. For subsequent installments, Marins, believing that realism was very important, grew his own nails to incredible lengths, and retained them as part of his everyday persona: “When I created this character that would become a living legend and I began to develop it, I saw an obligation to use my own nails so the people saw that they were real, authentic. Afterward, they became a part of me, and to lose a nail is like losing a finger.” --Marins. Lucchetti, R.F. (1987). Ivan Cardosa encontra Zé do Caixão. In “O Estranho Mundo do Zé do Caixão: Noite Negra" By 1982, Marins’ nails had reached nearly 20 centimeters and were severely interfering with his daily life. His doctor advised that he cut them to prevent paralysis. When Marins told his friends in the Boca Do Lixo that he was going to cut his nails, one of them introduced him to Gugu Liberato, host of of the TV show Viva a Noite (Live at Night), who invited him to perform the “ceremony” on his show'' Barcinski, André;Finotti, Ivan “Maldito: a vida e o cinema de José Mojica Marins, o Zé do Caixão''. The event featured an appearance by musician Zé Ramalho, who performed “A Peleja Do Diabo Com O Dono Do Céu.” In 1998, Marins was again invited to perform a ceremony to cut his nails, this time during a Sepultura concert. The nails were estimated to be 25 centimeters long, and three of them were given away to friends. Marins kept the ring finger nail to display in the Coffin Joe Museum in São Paulo, while the pinky nail was auctioned on the internet for 50 thousand Real and the proceeds were donated to a children's foundation. In The Media In 1967, Coffin Joe's likeness was used to market a line of beauty products, the first of which was a nail “vitalizer” called Mistério (Mystery). To promote it, Marins invented a bizarre sales pitch: "This vitalizer works because it is made with radioactive sludge from Serra Negra. Now anyone can have nails as strong and long as mine." The product was a success.[ Barcinski, André;Finotti, Ivan “Maldito: a vida e o cinema de José Mojica Marins, o Zé do Caixão''] In 2009, Marins participated in a video for Revista Gloss Online, a Brazilian beauty magazine, where he offered nail care advice and explained how to tell if a nail is “male” or “female.” Below is a list of films in which one or more characters mention Coffin Joe’s/Marins’ nails: *Mentioned once in This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse. Coffin Joe asks one of his victims, “How long would these nails grow if I did not cut them? Until they atrophy my hands?” *Mentioned twice in Awakening of the Beast. When Marins is shown on TV arguing with a panel of critics, one of them asks “Mojica, that fingernail on your thumb, that nail of a wild boar, do you hang your clothes on it?” Later, when asked about Coffin Joe, one of the LSD test subjects replies, “His long nails are disgusting.” *Mentioned once in Perversion. Veronica asks Vitorio why he has long nails. According to the subtitles, he tells her, “We need to be different from one another.” *Mentioned twice in The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe. A reporter asks Mojica why he doesn’t use fake nails, to which Marins replies, “It’s a matter of authenticity.” When Mojica visits his friend’s home, the youngest daughter, Betinha, looks at Marins’ hand and asks if him he ever cuts his nails. Videos References Category:stub Category:Characters